Yes, the Screen Actors Guild Awards were a week ago, but it's been a busy week so I'm gonna talk about it now. The SAGs are always a fun awards show to watch, even though the fact that SAG-AFTRA is union is sort of beaten over your head throughout the evening. The show always starts out with several stars in the audience facing the camera and telling a short story or anecdote about acting and finishing by saying, "I'm so-and-so and I am an actor." Talking to a friend about this opening a few days ago, we both agreed it is so stale and awkward. Why not just jump into the awards? If they cut out this 5 minute awkward opening then there wouldn't be a need to flash "wrap it up" on the teleprompter to Cate Blanchett.
The SAGs were the second awards show in a week, after the Globes, which featured both films and television. It's interesting that at both the best and most clever speeches came from the TV stars. I love love love movies, but there's no denying that we are clearly in a creative renaissance with television. The best speech was Julia Louis-Dreyfus'. It called back to the Emmy's by incorporating her Veep co-stars and called out her loss at the Globes. Comic genius. Look it up on YouTube if you missed it. Ty Burrel also gave a charming, funny speech about how to make it in show business. The SAGs also treated us to another whack-a-doo acceptance speech from an industry vet. Rita Moreno was presented with the Life Achievement Award by Morgan Freeman and is was full of awkwardness. She had Freeman "participate" in a bit from their 70's children's show The Electric Company and he clearly didn't know what was going on. Then she continued to sing half of her acceptance speech. This is another one worth YouTubing.
This weekend I went and saw 12 Years a Slave. It is heartbreaking and beautifully acted and filmed. It is another movie that deserves all of the accolades it is getting and more. Yes, it is an emotionally brutal movie to watch (I haven't cried so much in a movie theatre since Les Miserables) but it is an important movie to see as an American. In last year's Oscar race Quentin Tarantino's Django Unchained gave us the revenge fantasy we wish could have happened to slave owners in The South. This year, Steve McQueen shows us the brutal honesty of one of America's darkest times in history 12 Years a Slave. It's interesting that it took a British director with a British leading man to make a movie that unflinchingly shines a light on the horrors of American slavery. I hope as years go by, this film will become a movie that schools show to students to illustrate to them America's past that should never be repeated. Just as I watched Schindler's List to learn about Holocaust.
Steve McQueen does a wonderful job directing and I'm so glad he was nominated for Best Director. In a different year I think he might win, but I don't think he has a chance against Alfonso Cuaron for Gravity. Chiwetel Ejiofor also gives an amazing performance as Solomon Northup, a free black man in the North who is kidnapped and sold into slavery. It looks like Matthew McConaughey will win the Oscar this year, but I think Ejiofor gives the more moving and tour de force performance. He is able to convey so much with just his eyes; it is truly astounding. Lupita Nyong'o for Best Supporting Actress is the surest bet for an Oscar win for 12 Years a Slave. After the Golden Globes I thought maybe there was a bit of a race between her and Jennifer Lawrence for American Hustle in this category, but now that I have seen Nyong'o's performance it would be a travesty if Nyong'o doesn't win. She gives a heartbreaking performance as Patsey, the slave who has become the favorite play thing and punching bag of Michael Fassbender's terrifying slave owner Edwin Epps. Fassbender is also nominated for Best Supporting Actor and deservedly so, but he hasn't got a chance against Jared Leto in Dallas Buyers Club this year.
In all, 12 Years a Slave was nominated for nine Academy Awards including Best Picture. However, I think it should have gotten ten. One thing that really struck me as I was watching the film was how seamlessly Hans Zimmer's score intertwined with the action of the film. I've only seen one of the Best Original Score nominees so far, which is Her, but I felt Zimmer's score was more emotional.
That's enough for tonight. Hopefully there are some Oscar nominated movies in my mailbox from Netflix to watch this week. Goodnight!
MGG
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